1898
On February 15, the USS Maine was sunk in Havana harbor with a loss of 260 men. Strained
relations led to the Spanish-American War, declared in April and ended by a treaty signed
December 10. Pierre and Marie Curie discovered uranium.
First Graduates
Football Team
Athletic Sabotage
Civil Engineering
First Graduates.
Clarkson’s first three degrees in the two-year domestic science program were
awarded to Melita N. Heward, Mary E. Sanford, and Helen M. Story. In addition, certificates
were awarded to 27 women from the Normal School in Sewing, on in Physiology and Home
Nursing, and 10 in Knife Work.
Football Team.
George Stebbins ’01 organized the first football team to represent “the Tech”,
and acted as its captain for the first three years. He returned in 1911 to become the first alumnus
to serve on the Board of Trustees.
Athletic Sabotage.
In the third annual triangular track meet among Potsdam Normal,
St.Lawrence, and Clarkson, Clarkson’s star athlete, “Bill” Palmer, was “sabotaged”. In a vain
attempt to win this meet, students from normal got Bill drunk the night before the meet. Their
ploy failed, however, as Bill took nine first places the next day, including a one-mile bicycle
race- then a part of every track meet.
Civil Engineering.
Under the leadership of Barton Cruikshank, Clarkson added a third four-
year curriculum: one in civil engineering. Distinct from courses in electrical and mechanical
engineering, civil engineer included railway, structural, municipal, mining, and geodetic
engineering. As an example of the lines of work taken up, the following special features may be
noted: in railway engineering, a railway line is located, cross-sectioned, and staked out in detail,
with complete maps and profiles, computations of earthwork, and costs.
Structural engineering included courses in bridges and roofs, structural design, building
construction, masonry, and foundations. Municipal engineering comprised water analysis,
hydraulics, water works, sewer construction, sanitary science, road and street pavements, and
city surveying. Mining engineering embraced geology, mineralogy, mining methods and
surveys, and assaying.
Geodetic engineering included especially hydrographic surveying and geodesy, fitting
graduates to take positions in the United States Coast, Geodetic, and Lake Surveys. The civil
engineering major took the common first two years of engineering curriculum, and in his junior
and senior years enrolled in the following courses of varying credits (1,2,3, or 4):
